• Slug: BC-CNS-Tribal Health,600 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Adrienne Washington
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a claim by the San Carlos Apache tribe that the federal government is shortchanging it on funds it needs to operate tribal health services.

The case turns on whether the Indian Health Service should reimburse the tribe’s overhead costs for health services it delivers with the support of third-party insurers, like Medicaid or private insurance. In the case of the San Carlos Apache, that amounted to $3 million in overhead expenses over a three-year period, according to court documents. Continue reading “Supreme Court agrees to hear San Carlos Apache appeal on health care funding”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Travel Spirals,600 words.
• 2 file photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lux Butler
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Millions of travelers won’t have to look any farther than the lines in front of them this holiday season for evidence that Americans have moved past the pandemic.

Experts say this holiday season will be one of the busiest in the last 20 years, with travel surging to pre-pandemic levels and beyond, and they remind travelers to make sure they are prepared before getting to the airport.

AAA estimates that 49.1 million will drive more than 50 miles for the holiday, another 4.7 million people will fly and 1.5 million will travel by boat, train or other means. The 55.3 million total travelers is the third-highest since AAA started tracking holiday travel in 2000, trailing only 2005 and 2019. Continue reading “Holiday travelers expected to hit the road, skies in near-record numbers”

• Slug: BC-CNS-CN2Go Weekly Update. Runtime 11:16.
• Downloadable audio here. (Note: Some web browsers may not support media download)

[Music bed under] 

CN2Go Host: This is CN2Go.

[Bring up music briefly and duck below and out ]

HOST: I’m Kenny Rasmussen, your host for the program today, and we have some interesting stories to share. Continue reading “CN2Go Weekly Update: Murthy speaks, a mom speaks out, Ray Anderson steps back”

• Slug: BC-CNS-General Loneliness. 530 words. By Deanna Pistono.
• 4 photos available (thumbnails and captions below).
• Video story available.

By Deanna Pistono
Cronkite News

TEMPE – U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy addressed Arizona State University students on Nov. 13 at Memorial Union on the Tempe campus as part of his “We Are Made to Connect” tour. In conversation with Emma Broyles, ASU student and Miss America 2022, Murthy advised the audience to connect meaningfully with those around them to benefit their mental and physical health.

“If you are like me, who was struggling with loneliness as a kid, you probably just thought, ‘Loneliness is just a bad feeling, gotta to suck it up, get it over with, it’s fine,’” Murthy said.

“It turns out that loneliness has real consequences for our health. When people struggle with the sense of being lonely and isolated, basically being socially disconnected, that actually increases their risk of depression, anxiety and suicide,” he said. “It also … over time, increases their risk of physical illness as well. Heart disease, dementia, premature death. In fact, we see that the overall mortality impact of social disconnection is on par with smoking daily.”

Continue reading “Surgeon General advocates for social connection at ASU”

EDS: An earlier version of this story misstated how Phoenix’s wastewater is treated and how much of it is recycled. The errors appeared in the ninth and 11th grafs of the text and also in the accompanying video.  The story below has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: BC-CNS-AI Wastewater. 570 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails and captions below).

By Ellie Willard
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – From self-driving cars to automated services, artificial intelligence has been influencing every aspect of day-to-day life – even in ways we can’t see. In Phoenix, artificial intelligence is helping the city from underground.

In October, the city’s Water Services Department launched a six-month wastewater treatment pilot program with AI company Kando, based in Israel.

Kando Pulse is a wastewater intelligence platform built to “improve people’s lives and the environment,” according to Guy Cohen, chief product officer at Kando. The system uses sensors to obtain data from wastewater and translate it into insights that detect any irregularities within sewage.

Continue reading “An innovative flush: Phoenix turns to artificial intelligence for improved wastewater monitoring”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Tucson Border,630 words.
• File photo, graphic available (embed code, thumbnail, caption below).

By Adrienne Washington
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Border Patrol officers encountered 55,224 migrants in the Tucson sector in October, far outstripping the 38,211 encounters in the Del Rio, Texas, sector and almost 10 times the number seen in the Yuma sector that month.

It was the fourth straight month that Tucson has been the busiest for Border Patrol activity on the southern border, and experts are not exactly sure why Tucson is the new gateway.

“The patterns of migration just continue to change,” said Colleen Putzel, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “The diversification of people coming to the southern border are really shifting and that (is) presenting a lot of new and unique challenges.” Continue reading “Border encounters dip slightly, but Tucson sector again saw most traffic”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Israel March,700 words.
• 6 photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lux Butler
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Former Perry High School student Tomer Ben-Ezer said he has not always felt comfortable living in Washington, but that was not the case Tuesday as he looked around at the crowds and the Israeli and U.S. flags filling the National Mall.

“There’s going to be hate, of course, there’s going to be antisemitism, but as long as we are together, we’re going to be stronger,” said Ben-Ezer, an Israeli flag draped around his shoulders.

He was one of several Arizonans who joined thousands in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol for the Americans March for Israel. The event, organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, comes in the wake of more than a month of fighting between Israel and Hamas. Continue reading “Arizonans join thousands at rally to support Israel, decry antisemitism”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Scooter Expansion. 1,060 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails and captions below).

By Alyssa Bickle
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Phoenix residents and visitors could have more options in 2024 for micromobility, short-distance transportation with lightweight vehicles, electric and non-electric, that typically only transport one person at a time, such as electric scooters or electric bikes.

The city’s pilot program began in downtown Phoenix in September 2019 with various vehicle vendors; users logged more than 330,000 e-scooter rides. The program was further expanded to include neighborhoods south and east of downtown.

Continue reading “Phoenix considers expanding boundaries, inventory for e-scooter and e-bike program”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Teacher Pay. 750 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails and captions below).

By Jacob Snelgrove
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Arizona Republican lawmakers announced a plan to increase pay for teachers in K-12 public schools – they’re calling it the “Teacher Pay Fund.”

“This session the Republican-led Legislature will be introducing legislation to increase teacher pay by 7% or about $4,000,” said Senate President Warren Petersen at a news conference Monday. “The average teacher in Arizona makes $56,000 a year. Our plan will increase the average teacher pay to over $60,000 per year.”

Petersen said the land trust endowment, which is a long-term savings account that helps fund education, would pay for the plan.

Continue reading “Arizona Republican lawmakers announce plan to raise teacher pay”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Parent Caregivers. 990 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails and captions below).
• Audio story available.

By Deanna Pistono
Cronkite News

QUEEN CREEK – Tyson Coon turns 9 this November. He enjoys reading and watching Disney movies, such as “Frozen” or “Moana.” He’s the oldest of three boys, whose names all begin with the letter T.

When Tyson was 6 months old, he had bacterial meningitis that caused what his mother, Brandi Coon, described as “massive strokes throughout his brain.” As a result, Tyson has a severe type of epilepsy known as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, cerebral palsy, right-sided blindness and oral dysphagia, a condition that affects his mouth, tongue and lips.

These diagnoses have different impacts on his life. Because of his dysphagia, Tyson uses a gastrostomy tube that delivers food and drink directly to his stomach. He also uses an alternative communication device that enables him to press buttons to select words he wants to say. Because of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, he has two or more seizures each day.

In 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) requested and was granted emergency flexibility to use funds to pay parents for providing specialized care to their children under 18. Though the flexibility was previously extended, it is currently set to expire in March 2024. A proposal submitted by AHCCCS to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this September, however, would permanently extend the program, allowing parent caregivers who meet direct care worker requirements to be paid for up to 40 hours a week.

Continue reading “Arizona proposal would help families of children with disabilities by paying parents to be caregivers”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Downtown Parking Woes. About 825 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails and captions below).

By Jacob Snelgrove
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – The downtown area has seen significant growth over the last several years, and the influx of people has increased the parking demand.

R.J. Price, chief growth officer at Downtown Phoenix Inc., said the downtown population has tripled since 2000, but that the best indicator for the health of downtown Phoenix are its sidewalks, which have never been more energized, vibrant and full than in 2023.

“We were never expected to be a place that people were going to do vertical living and live in the middle of downtown,” Price said. Fast forward to 2023, and more than 12,000 residential units have been built, with 4,000 more under construction.

Due to the population growth and ongoing construction of new housing and other projects, parking is a common complaint.

Continue reading “Downtown Phoenix growth, construction, events lead to parking puzzle”

EDS: This is a partner story from KUNC. If you choose to use it, please fill out this form to help their tracking.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Tapped Out,1560 words.
• 5 photos, audio story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Alex Hager
KUNC

With infrastructure that is aging and needs replacement, municipal water departments in the Colorado River basin are starting to invest in new systems that will help cities adapt to a future with a smaller water supply. But that means big spending, costs that will get passed along to the millions of people who use that water in sinks, showers and sprinklers.

“There’s literally nothing else you can have 1,000 gallons of delivered to your house at 2 in the morning for a few bucks,” said Mark Marlowe, water director in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Marlowe and other water experts across the arid West agree, the amount you pay for tap water should probably go up, and likely will over the next few decades — in large part due to aging infrastructure. Continue reading “Tap water is cheap, but old pipes, a shrinking Colorado could change that”

• Slug: BC-CNS-CN2Go Weekly Update. Runtime 9:17.
• Downloadable audio here. (Note: Some web browsers may not support media download)

[Music bed under] 

CN2Go Host: This is Cronkite News 2 Go. I’m your host, Kiersten Edgett.

[Music fade in/under]

HOST: On today’s show we talk about the results of Tuesday’s election, how two local outrigger canoe teams keep the ocean-based sport alive in the middle of the desert, and what the future of horse racing could look like in Arizona. Continue reading “CN2Go Weekly Update: El Mirage says no to $41.5 million bond, Hawaii in the desert and hopeful for horses”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Dominican Evictions,3780 words.
• 18 photos, graphic available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Caitlin Thompson
Cronkite Borderlands Project

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Red letters painted on the wall of the concrete house indicated its fate. In this neighborhood in the capital city, marks like this are a sign that a home will soon be reduced to rubble, often within hours of its inhabitants’ eviction. That moment came for this house, and the family that lived in it, on a clear day in March.

The two-story house – yellow walls on the top floor, orange on the bottom – belonged to Ana Maria Cruz Mejia. She has lived in the house since she was 3. She is now in her 40s. The home had seen all the twists and turns of her life. She ran a business on the ground floor, selling consignment clothes, hence the mannequin propped up against the wall.

“It is my whole life, really,” she said. “All my memories are here, my children were born here, my grandchildren. My father died here — in other words a whole life. They say a person makes the place…” Continue reading “As Santo Domingo develops, vulnerable people are left behind”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Court Watchers,820 words.
• 7 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Reagan Priest
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In a small hearing room in the State Courts Building, a few individuals in black shirts sat in the three rows of chairs in the back. For the six hearings in April Sponsel’s disciplinary trial, these court watchers with Mass Liberation Arizona attended with notepads and pens, observing and taking notes.

Sponsel, a former prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, is facing a two-year suspension of her law license for her involvement in charging Black Lives Matter protesters as gang members in 2020, according to ABC15. Mass Lib has been following the case since the protesters were charged, and Matt Aguilar, a lead organizer for the group, said it’s important for members to follow it to the end. Continue reading “Arizona activists work to hold the criminal justice system accountable through court watching”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Gowan Migration,700 words.
• 3 photos, video story photo available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Adrienne Washington
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – In all the time he’s lived near the border, Arizona Sen. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, said he has never seen an immigration crisis as bad as the one he’s seeing now.

“It’s the highest incursion we’ve had since I’ve lived down there,” said Gowan, who has lived in Cochise County for 30 years.

That was the message that Gowan and a handful of local officials and activists from across the country hoped to deliver to members of Congress while in Washington this week. As Terrell County, Texas, Sheriff Thad Cleveland said, it’s not just a problem for border states. Continue reading “Gowan, other officials come to Washington to plead for border action”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Outrigger Connections. 500 words.
• 10 photos available (thumbnails and captions below).
• Audio story, video story available.

By Kevinjonah Paguio
Cronkite News

TEMPE – A piece of Hawaiian culture has transplanted itself into Arizona, a state not known for its aquatic sports and activities. Na Leo ’O Ke Kai (Na Leo) and Team Arizona (TAZ) outrigger canoe clubs are two Arizona organizations that provide an outlet for Hawaiian culture and sport to thrive.

Hawaiian outrigger canoeing is a sport where six people paddle a narrow, 40-foot canoe and compete in distance and sprint races. They assume different roles: Some are in charge of setting the pace, others are the powerhouses, while the person in the stern steers and gives commands.

“I kind of think of it like cogs in a clock,” Ryan Udarbe, president of Na Leo, said. “Everybody has to move at the same time, in exactly the same speed, or else you’re going to throw everything off.”

Continue reading “‘Perpetuating the Hawaiian culture’: Outrigger canoe teams bring sport, community to Arizona”

• Slug: BC-CNS-School Grades,820 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Adrienne Washington
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The number of schools getting an F on the state’s annual report card has fallen sharply, going from 49 in 2019 to 24 this year, but the number of failing alternative schools rose over the same period.

Seven alternative schools, which serve the state’s most at-risk students, got a grade of F on the state’s annual A-F School Letter Grades report, up from four in 2019.

The yearly assessment compiles students’ proficiency on standardized testing, graduation rates and other factors to derive a grade for each school. The report, released in late October, showed that five of the state’s 247 high schools got a failing grade, along with 12 of the 1,341 kindergarten through eighth grade schools in the state. Continue reading “Number of failing schools fell; alternative schools headed the other way”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Tribal Youth,440 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lux Butler
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Gabriella Nakai said she has tackled the challenges facing Indigenous communities on her own, but that being surrounded by others who share her passion makes the load a little lighter.

“Seeing all of the amazing work that all of these Native national native youth leaders are doing pushes me forward and lets me know that when I am the only Native in these spaces that I have, all these people behind me that are going to have my back,” Nakai said Monday.

She was one of two Arizona “Champions for Change” – along with Fort Apache resident Jovi Williams of the White Mountain Apache – at the third annual White House Tribal Youth Forum. It brought together 123 Indigenous teens from across the nation and other countries to share information on the issues affecting their communities today. Continue reading “Arizona teens share passions with others at White House Tribal Youth Forum”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Poll Workers,870 words.
• File photo, video story available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Renee Romo
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Local elections across Arizona on Tuesday could be a low-level test of voting systems stressed by years of threats and challenges that have left some worried about the 2024 presidential election, now less than a year away.

But elections officials said they are fairly confident – in the short and the long term – that they will be able to train and staff polling places, despite three years of what Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer refers to as the “hullabaloo” of election challenges.

“We still have a great crew of poll workers throughout most of Arizona. These are folks that have been doing it for a long time,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said last week. “In fact, I met one recently who’s been doing it for 75 years and she ain’t gonna stop.” Continue reading “Officials confident about Tuesday voting, feel good for long-term outlook”